BJP Accounted For 61% of the Total Money Spent by Parties in 2014 Maharashtra, Haryana Polls: Report

New Delhi: Of the 15 political parties which spent a total of Rs 357 crore in campaigning during the Maharashtra and Haryana assembly elections in 2014, almost 61 per cent of it or Rs 217 crore was spent by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alone.

The saffron party was followed by Congress at Rs 55 crore, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) at Rs 41 crore and Shiv Sena at Rs 18 crore.

According to an analysis of expenditure affidavits by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), BJP’s central headquarter itself spent Rs 151 crore during these assembly elections. While its Maharashtra state unit incurred an expenditure of Rs 65 crore, the party’s Haryana unit shelled out a little over one crore. In the case of the grand old party, its central headquarters spent over Rs 8 crore whereas its Maharashtra and Haryana units splurged a total of Rs 36 crore and Rs 11 crore, respectively.

Among all the parties, of the total expenditure incurred, Rs 204 crore were spent by the central units of the respective parties, Rs 137 crore were sent by their Maharashtra units and Rs 16 crore were spent by their Haryana units.

All India Forward Bloc, Indian Union Muslim League (IUML),and JD(U) are the only parties that have incurred no expenditure either at the central or at the state unit level despite contesting elections, the ADR report read.

Additionally, as far as expenditure across various heads is concerned, over 77 per cent or Rs 281 crore of the total money was spent on ‘publicity’, within which over Rs 245 crore were incurred on media advertisements — print & electronic, bulk SMS, cable, website TV channels, etc. The remaining amount was spent on publicity materials (posters, banners, etc.) and public meetings.

Party-wise, while the BJP spent over Rs 186 crore on publicity (66 per cent of the total spent by all parties), the Congress splurged Rs 41 crore on it.

Money Collected By Political Parties During Elections

Declaration about funds collected by political parties during these elections shows that parties received a total of Rs 464 crore, of which nearly 64 per cent or Rs 297 crore were collected by the BJP, followed by the Congress at Rs 84 crore (18 per cent), the NCP at Rs 38 crore (8 per cent) and Shiv Sena at Rs 16 crore (2.5 per cent).

More than two-thirds of the money (Rs 324 crore) was collected through cheques and demand drafts by parties, while almost all of the remaining amount was given to them in cash (Rs 141 crore). Moreover, about half of the total money was collected by the central headquarters of these parties. About 47 per cent of the remaining half was collected by the Maharashtra units and the rest came to Haryana units.